electronicmusicfandomcom-20200213-history
Microwave
A series of three digital synthesizers released by Waldorf between about 1989 and 2005. All three relied primarily on the wave scanning method of synthesis pioneered by PPG in the 1980s. The original Micrwave was a project launched by some PPG employees to develop a rackmount version of the PPG Wave synth, but they were not able to finish the project before PPG ran out of money and ceased operations in 1987. The employees involved moved to Waldorf and developed the Microwave, releasing it in 1989. Microwave I The Microwave I, as it is now called retroactively, was an 8-voice polyphonic synth using the wave scanning method. Each voice had two oscillators with 64 available wavetables, a VCF , a VCA , and four available envelope generators. Unlike most of the rest of the circuitry, the VCF was analog, a 4-pole low pass filter. (This was originally implemented with a Curtis 3389; this was changed to the 3387 during production.) Patch memory consisted of 64 internal locations, and an additional 64 on an inserted memory card. The user interface was a rather minimal one-knob interface with a small display, and was the main disliked feature of the synth, which otherwise received mostly positive reviews. (Access Music produced a seldom-seen programmer for it.) The Microwave could duplicate many of the sounds of the PPG Wave at a fraction of the cost. The operating system was in EPROMs which could be replaced by the user; Waldorf several times used this to release OS upgrades with new features and additional wavetables. The last version, 2.0, included the ability to load user-built wavetables. (Prospective Microwave I buyers should note that Waldorf also produced a "slave" unit with no controls; this was an expander which had to be connected to a regular Microwave I unit in order to function. According to some Waldorf users, this slave unit does not work with the 2.0 OS.) Microwave II In response to user feedback, Waldorf released the Microwave II in 1997. The most visible difference was a considerably improved user interface, with an expanded display and on-screen editing controls to reduce the number of menus that needed to be navigated in order to edit patches. Major changes to the voice architecture included replacing the analog VCF with a digital multimode filter capable of a number of complex response curves. Polyphony increased to 10 voices, and patch memory to 256 locations. This unit came from the factory with all of the features of the 2.0 OS of the original Microwave. Additionally, onboard effects were added including chorusing, flanging, and distortion. Microwave XT The last version was the MIcrowave XT, released in 1998. This unit, physically larger than the earlier models, added a notable improvement in the user interface: about 40 knobs to control the most-used individual parameters. The packaging was designed to be either rack mounted or used as a tabletop unit. The unit was 8-part multitimbral, and polyphony, 10 voices from the factory, could be expanded to 30 by adding expansion boards. The synth engine was the same as the Microwave II model, but processing expanded from a 16-bit word width to 20-bit. The XT was noticeable for its bright-orange panel (a handful were made with grey panels). In 1999, Waldorf released a keyboard version known as the XTk; this had a four-octave keyboard plus pitch and mod wheels. The other controls and circuity were the same as for the XT. Production Status Production of the original Microwave ended in 1998 when the Microwave II was introduced. Production of the II, XT, and XTk models all ended when the original Waldorf AG declared bankruptcy in 2004. The reconstituted Waldorf Music elected not to resume production of the Microwave line, choosing instead to make the Blofeld the company's flagship for wave scanning synthesis. Category:Waldorf synths Category:Digital synths